PHOENIX –John Stewart, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver beware, Arizona’s notorious tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist Sylvia “The Earth is 6,000 Years Old” Allen is ready to make her political comeback. Earlier today Republican officials in Arizona’s Legislative District 6 placed the controversial former state senator on the general election ballot to replace Senator Chester Crandell, who died in a horse-riding accident in August.

Allen will face independent Tom O’Halleran – a former moderate Republican Senator from Sedona – in the general election.

Allen was a consistent and persistent source of embarrassment for rural Arizona during her first tenure in the Arizona Legislature from 2008 to 2012. Over and over again Allen made headlines – sometimes nationally – for her bizarre and insensitive comments as well as her full-throated support for several widely debunked fringe conspiracy theories. A reliable tool for the Tea Party, Allen’s support for disgraced right-wing extremists like recalled Senator Russell Pearce, and for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, put her on the wrong side of history. An Allen victory would drag Arizona backwards in time and further harm the state’s reputation and economy.

“There is plenty of competition for the craziest, most out-of-touch Tea Party politician in Arizona, but if we had a Mt. Rushmore of paranoid extremists in politics, Sylvia Allen would definitely be on it,” said Robbie Sherwood, executive director of ProgressNow Arizona and, like Allen, a native of Arizona’s White Mountains.

As a reminder for voters, reporters and pundits, here are the Top 10 Sylvia Allen head slappers:

6. Let us eat cake! — Led the floor fight against ethics reforms and defended free lunches and game tickets from lobbyists.

5. 21 Chump Street – Allen led a posse of conspiracy theorists to wax cray-cray about Agenda 21 (a non-binding international commitment to sustainability) at a legislative hearing.

4. Hunger Games — In opting to eliminate healthcare coverage for 288,000 Arizonans, Allen glibly quipped: “This isn’t the only time in our history when people had to choose between food and medicine.”
3. The Amazing Racist – Allen invited anti-Hispanic, anti-sematic nativist Glenn Spencer to speak before her committee, prompting walkouts from Democratic Senators and scathing response form the Anti-Defamation League.

2. Should I Spray or Should I Go Now? – Allen took to Facebook to raise concerns over “chemtrails” – ordinary airplane exhaust to you and me, but a government plot to POISON us all to Allen and her co-horts. Allen’s Chemtrails nonsense has have been dubbed by people who know about this stuff as one of the dumbest conspiracy theories of all time.

1. Jurassic Snark — Allen earned worldwide attention when she remarked during a hearing that the Earth is 6,000 year old. Allen, always willing to pollute and destroy the natural resources in her district, was trying to be a champion for dangerous uranium mining at the Grand Canyon when she made the statement.

###

Related

Mission:

We expose the powerful for their misdeeds and promote a vision of our state that works for everyone – regardless of who you are, who you love, how much you make, or where you’re from. We work year-round to promote progressive issues and public policy solutions, to correct right-wing misinformation and to hold elected officials accountable.

Progress Now Arizona works year-round to promote progressive issues and public policy solutions, to correct right-wing misinformation and to hold elected officials accountable. Is that something you care about? Then donate now!